Automatic timesheets

Automatic timesheets that a manager still signs.

Automatic timesheets are timesheets that nobody types. With ZeroBadge, the badge records the shift from power-on to power-off, every minute is classified on site, in transit or other and allocated to a jobsite, and the week is assembled for you. A manager still reviews the exceptions and approves. Corrections are logged, and the weekly PDF is kept as a version that cannot be changed.

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Built from badge records
Exceptions flagged daily, askable in ZeroBadge AI
Approval stays with a manager

ZeroBadgeTimesheetsWeek of Oct 5

Lena O.

Foreman

Badge-recorded

Day

In → Out

Locations

Recorded

Mon7:00 AM → 4:31 PM2 locations9h 31m
Tue6:30 AM → 3:50 PM4 locations9h 20m
On site7h 20mTransit1h 35mOther25m
Wed7:00 AM → 4:36 PM2 locations9h 36m
Thu7:00 AM → 4:16 PM2 locations9h 16m
Fri7:07 AM → 4:03 PM2 locations8h 56m

Week recorded

46.7 h

Overtime

6.7 h

What the word means

Automatic means the timesheet is built for you. It does not mean nobody is accountable for it.

The badge supplies the raw record and the system does the arithmetic. People still decide what is paid. That split is deliberate: software is good at adding up thousands of minutes, and a supervisor is good at knowing why one of them looks odd.

One foreman, one Wednesday

How a day becomes timesheet lines, with the arithmetic shown.

A foreman powers the badge on at the shop at 6:02 AM and off at 3:30 PM. Nobody pressed anything in between. This is what the record holds.

How a day becomes timesheet lines, with the arithmetic shown.
Badge time	What the badge recorded	Where it lands on the timesheet
6:02 to 6:41	Inside the shop geofence	On site, shop: 39 min
6:41 to 7:03	Moving between two drawn locations	Transit: 22 min
7:03 to 11:48	Inside Site A	On site, Site A: 4 h 45 min
11:48 to 12:34	Leaves Site A, stops at the supply house, drives on	Transit 11 min, supplier stop 22 min (other), transit 13 min
12:34 to 3:30	Inside Site B until power-off	On site, Site B: 2 h 56 min

6:02 to 6:41
What the badge recorded
Inside the shop geofence
Where it lands on the timesheet
On site, shop: 39 min
6:41 to 7:03
What the badge recorded
Moving between two drawn locations
Where it lands on the timesheet
Transit: 22 min
7:03 to 11:48
What the badge recorded
Inside Site A
Where it lands on the timesheet
On site, Site A: 4 h 45 min
11:48 to 12:34
What the badge recorded
Leaves Site A, stops at the supply house, drives on
Where it lands on the timesheet
Transit 11 min, supplier stop 22 min (other), transit 13 min
12:34 to 3:30
What the badge recorded
Inside Site B until power-off
Where it lands on the timesheet
On site, Site B: 2 h 56 min

Total: 9 h 28 min, which is 6:02 to 3:30. On site 8 h 20 min (500 min), transit 46 min, other 22 min. The three buckets always add back to the shift, so nothing is double counted or dropped.

Four ways to produce a timesheet

Who builds the timesheet decides what you can trust in it.

The question is not how fast the sheet is produced. It is what the sheet knows without being told.

How a weekly timesheet is produced under each method
Compare	ZeroBadgeBuilt from the badge record	Paper or spreadsheetWritten, then typed	Phone appWorker enters or punches	Foreman entrySupervisor keys the crew
Who creates the line	The badge, as the shift happens.	The worker, from memory, then the office re-keys it.	The worker, on a phone they must carry and open.	The foreman, for people he may not have seen all day.
Where the hours went	Split by jobsite, transit and supplier stops without anyone writing it.	Usually one job code for the whole day.	Depends on the worker picking the right job.	Whatever the foreman remembers.
When the office sees the week	During the week. Saturday to Friday sheets are generated for every worker.	After the sheets come in.	As entries are made.	When the foreman gets to it.
A missing clock-out	Flagged for review with the badge record behind it.	A blank line someone calls about.	Often runs on until the worker notices.	Rarely noticed.
A correction	Reason required, original record kept, edit logged.	A cross-out on a sheet.	Depends on the vendor.	An overwritten cell.

Compare ZeroBadge with

How a weekly timesheet is produced under each method: ZeroBadge compared with Paper
ZeroBadge	Paper
Who creates the line
The badge, as the shift happens.	The worker, from memory, then the office re-keys it.
Where the hours went
Split by jobsite, transit and supplier stops without anyone writing it.	Usually one job code for the whole day.
When the office sees the week
During the week. Saturday to Friday sheets are generated for every worker.	After the sheets come in.
A missing clock-out
Flagged for review with the badge record behind it.	A blank line someone calls about.
A correction
Reason required, original record kept, edit logged.	A cross-out on a sheet.

The tradeoff

Phone apps can produce clean timesheets when every worker carries a charged phone and keeps the app running. Where that holds, the gap is smaller. Where crews share phones, leave them in the truck or do not own one, the sheet inherits the habit.

The review flow

Exceptions come to you. You do not hunt for them.

The list has four kinds of item: a missing clock-out, a late start, an early finish and time outside approved sites.

01
Flag
As the shift runs or ends, anything outside the pattern lands on the exceptions list with the badge record attached.
System · daily
02
Look
The supervisor opens the item and sees the same minutes the timesheet is built from: where the badge was, and when.
Supervisor
03
Decide
Accept it as recorded, or correct it. A correction needs a reason, and the original reading stays on file beside the edit.
Supervisor · reason required
04
Approve
A manager approves the week. Approved hours can then go to your payroll provider.
Manager · weekly

Two ordinary exceptions

The late apprentice and the badge that went home in the truck.

An apprentice powers on at 7:25 on a crew that starts at 7:00. The timesheet records 7:25 because that is what happened, and the late start is flagged for the supervisor to accept or note. Nobody had to compare a sheet against a schedule.

A journeyman finishes at 3:30, forgets to power the badge off and drives home. The badge keeps reporting from outside every approved site, so the shift shows up as a missing clock-out with time outside approved sites. The supervisor sets 3:30 as the end with the reason "forgot to power off," and both the original run and the edit are kept.

ZeroBadgeTimesheetsExceptions

Timesheets

Generated

Shifts

120

Recorded

Open items

Before payroll

Late start · Hannah P. · Harbor Yard
Mon Oct 5 · Clocked in 7:24 AM; crew start 7:00 AM (24 min after).
Corrected
Late start · Connor J. · Northgate
Wed Oct 7 · Clocked in 6:52 AM; crew start 6:30 AM (22 min after).
Corrected
Missing clock-out · Ivan B. · Harbor Yard
Thu Oct 8 · No clock-out recorded. Shift closed at the last badge report (2:55 PM) pending supervisor review.
Needs review
Late start · Kenji H. · Riverside
Thu Oct 8 · Clocked in 7:18 AM; crew start 7:00 AM (18 min after).
Needs review
Early finish · Olivia V. · Northgate
Fri Oct 9 · Clocked out 12:15 PM; scheduled finish 1:30 PM (75 min before).
Needs review

Approved hours go to

Your payroll provider
CSVexport
Excelexport
PDFexport

What it does and does not do

The honest scope of automatic timesheets.

It records what the badge saw
The badge reports about every 5 minutes. If signal drops, reports are stored and uploaded on reconnect with their original timestamps, and the day fills back in.
It does not decide what is paid
Unpaid breaks, travel rules and rounding policy are yours. ZeroBadge shows transit and supplier stops as their own lines so you can apply them.
It does not remove the review
A manager approves the week. The exceptions list exists so that review takes minutes on the days that need it and nothing on the days that do not.
It does not guess silently
A reading that cannot be placed at a site is labelled low confidence, or classified as other. It is never quietly assigned to a job.
It does not run payroll
ZeroBadge integrates with payroll providers and exports CSV, Excel or PDF. Your payroll provider runs payroll.
It does not edit history
Corrections keep an audit trail. The weekly PDF is kept as an unchangeable version, so last month's sheet reads the same today as the day it was generated.

The close of the week

Friday afternoon, before and after.

Timesheets built by hand

FridayCollect sheets, fill the blanks from memory, chase the missing ones.
MondayRe-key every line, then answer questions about days nobody can reconstruct.

Timesheets built from badge records

SaturdayThe Saturday-to-Friday timesheets are already generated for every worker.
MondayClear the remaining exceptions, approve, send approved hours to payroll.

ZeroBadge AI

Ask ZeroBadge AI what is left to approve

Before you sign the week, ask ZeroBadge AI what still needs a look. It answers from the timesheets the badges built, shows its sources for every figure and does not edit a thing. Your admins control who can ask.

You ask
Which timesheets still have exceptions before I approve the week?
Six of 38 timesheets carry exceptions: four open-ended shifts with no power-off, one gap of 2 h 10 min with no location reports and one overlapping correction. The other 32 are clean.
You ask
What is the week's total, and what changed from last week?
1,486 hours, up 62 from last week's 1,424. Most of the increase, 48 hours, came from the Harbor Road clinic after two workers moved over from the shop.
You ask
What was corrected on this week's timesheets?
Five corrections, each with a reason on file: three missed power-offs and two site changes. Together they moved 7 h 20 min. Each links to the original record and the edit.

Answers come only from your company's own records. Every number links to the records behind it. Read-only; admins control access.

How ZeroBadge AI works

Questions

Questions about automatic timesheets.

What are automatic timesheets?

Timesheets assembled from a device's records instead of typed in by a worker or office. In ZeroBadge the badge records each shift and its location, and the weekly timesheet is built from that record. People review and approve it.

Do automatic timesheets still need approval?

Yes. A manager approves the week, and only approved hours are sent to your payroll provider. The exceptions list narrows what the manager has to look at.

Can an automatic timesheet be wrong?

Yes. A badge left on after work, a dead zone or a weak indoor reading can all produce a line that needs a correction. That is why exceptions are flagged, readings carry a confidence label and every correction is logged. Checking the hours before they are approved stays a manager's job.

What happens if someone forgets to power the badge off?

The shift is flagged for review as a missing clock-out. A supervisor sets the real end time with a reason, and the original record stays next to the edit. See automatic clock in and out for the other failure modes.

Are corrections to an automatic timesheet visible?

Yes. A correction needs a reason, records who made it and when, and keeps the original reading. Nothing is silently edited.

How do the weekly timesheets get created?

The Saturday-to-Friday period is generated automatically for every worker and kept as a PDF version. If you change the pay period, the schedule follows it.

Does it work for workers without smartphones?

Yes. The badge has its own cellular connection, so nothing runs on a personal phone. See time tracking without phones.

Keep exploring

Next: approval, payroll and the exceptions in detail.

Last updated October 29, 2026

Get started

See a week that built itself.

We will open a generated week for your kind of crew, then walk the exceptions list and the correction log.

Get started Time tracking for field crews

What we will walk through

01A Saturday-to-Friday timesheet built from badge records
02The exceptions list and how a correction is logged
03How approved hours reach your payroll provider